The group Flying Lines is only posting machine translations for their english releases. Is this against the rules? I would really like to see their releases removed so actual translators can have their releases show up for those chapters. Flying Lines translations are not translations, they are just unedited machine translations. Even passing a chapter through Google Translate and fixing obvious mistakes would result in a better release. The most recent chapter of Ascendance of a Bookworm is glaringly bad and includes terrible mistakes like translating "etiquette" as "deportment" and mangling tense.
If they're unedited it's not allowed, if it's edited it's allowed. Mods generally investigate those matters before adding a group, so it's probably edited, even if poorly edited. If you can bring proof that they're just copy pasting the machine translation results, please do so and the mods will remove them from the list.
well flying-lines.c om/chapter/ascendance-of-a-bookworm/c-117-interior-decoration-of-the-italian-restaurant-1 is worse than a Google translate of ncode.syosetu.c om/n4830bu/109/ with no corrections, but not identical :\ it's a rotten shame that this garbage is now camped out on the last 13 chapters of this excellent novel which had excellent translations until they started posting this trash. If someone does a better job can they replace the Flying Lines versions of the chapters in Novel Updates, or does Flying Lines get to keep their awful TL here even if a real translator picks it up?
Sadly, yes. Happened to me with Common Sense of A Duke's Daughter. The bar is too low, so they most likely pass. It was disappointing to see the novel rated so badly because of crappy translations
We compare releases against all machine translation software that we're aware of. Sometimes we do miss something, but for the most part anything you see on Novel Updates has passed at least some level of scrutiny - particularly if the translation appears to have poor English at first glance. As @AliceShiki said, we do not accept unedited machine translation, for all the obvious reasons. We do not, however, judge the exact quality of a translation, and allow many that may seem subpar, whether as the result of edited machine translation or the manual translation of a translator with lacking English fluency. Standards of quality are difficult to define, and many people do, believe it or not, read translations that I personally consider completely illegible. Ultimately, it is our role to identify these releases so that the people who do want to read them can find them. ... Err, also, it's not like we're drowning in quality translators here. There are just too many novels. It's really not a case of a machine translator preventing a better translator from taking any given novel, so much as that there are just none available. Sometimes, you have to take what you can get.
I can't agree with allowing someone to claim a series that other translators have put 100+ chapters worth of effort into with a dogshit translation. There should be at least some way to replace the poorly translated chapters with a better version when someone more skilled wants to pick up the series. These aren't random series, Duke's Daughter and Ascendance of a Bookworm are some of the most prominent novels in your entire database. Nobody stole it from the translator, but now there are a bunch of awfully translated chapters that are worse than the results of Google Translate. This provides no value. A reader could just go to the raw, right click, and click "translate to English" and get the same thing. This just puts a hole in the series. A new translator can choose to retranslate these chapters and have the result not listed on NU, or they can choose to start translating from where the terrible translations leave off. No matter how you look at it, accepting these garbage TLs puts a permanent hole in the series.
But like he said, there isn't a line of good translators waiting to pick it up. The novel was dropped because the chapters are insanely long and it's difficult to translate. No one stole it from the translator
Oh, i have to say its worse than the machine translation i see in Devil's Origin, i expected better honestly
I just have a problem with their editing of I want to be in a relationship. It seems like one of the few they actually do edit but the way they do it ruins the book, I think. I kind of wish there were stricter rules about mass producing like this.
Well, some readers dont care. Something similar happened with Magi Craft Meister. A reader was insulting me on the crap translation website. I banned the reader from commenting and he made a thread here like a victim haha PS Quote or Click reply when you respond to posts. I didnt get any notification
Anyone can pick it up if they want, they just need to start from chapter 1 OR translate 50+ chapters. Either way works. If anyone thinks the translation is garbage and wants to replace it, they're free to do so. However... Why bother with translating a series that was dropped because J-Novel Club licensed it? Just read the official translation once it's released and you're good to go. No need to deal with hoping someone picks it up when it was already licensed by a reliable publisher.
How does it even keep other translators from adding their translation? Is there a rule like that? I do remember that some time ago there were even two translations of Common Sense of a Duke's Daughter running simultaneously - both were MTL I think, but one way worse than the other. I've read chopped up chapters and summaries of chapters, too, so it's really everyone's own business to what length they want to go for getting their fix. On another note, flying lines' translation of Legend of Concubine's Daughter Minglan is not too bad, especially compared to the last translator. So it might only be certain series that are severely lacking.
There are some formal and informal policies involved about poaching. What I am wondering is why flying lines machine translation is the only machine translation group being followed. there are a bunch of other machine translations out there that have been available since forever. NU as a policy only lists real translations and not machine translation. So why this deviation from policy when it comes to flying lines? Other common mistakes in flying lines machine translation: "Fellow daoist" mistranslated as "fellowman alchemist" "after the time it takes to have a meal" mistranslated as "after having a meal" (which makes it sound like MC stops in the middle of combat to eat)
Any group that tries adding their release to NU doesn't get added immediately, the mods look over it first and then approve it if it is within NU's policies. 2 groups can translate a series simultaneously as long as they follow the policies, you can read them here. NU has always allowed machine translation as long as it is edited, Flying Lines is not deviating from the policy at all. There are plenty of MTL groups listed in NU, but they all have the translation being edited by someone. The only thing NU doesn't allow are pure MTL, like what LNMTL does.
Thank you for clarifying the policy for me. Something I have noticed is that flying lines editing varies a lot in quality (and possibly existence) between the different stories.
Yeah, even if it's MTL of terribly low quality, it's still allowed in NU for as long as it's edited (mods do compare it with plenty of MTL softwares if the quality is low, to make sure it's edited)... I have no clue why anyone would read it if the quality is horribly low tbh, but it's not NU's place to judge quality, so as long as it's edited it's fine.
I doubt Flying Lines is MTL. This is not a compliment. No MTL ever would turn "nine-petaled lotus" into "nine-pedaled".
fellowman alchemist, they use term alchemist rather than daoist/cultivator for people who cultivate, I see this lines from Demon Diary. Funny thing is MC also practice alchemy for pills concoction. after the time it takes to have a meal" mistranslated as "after having a meal" (which makes it sound like MC stops in the middle of combat to eat) Hahahaha XD